Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Day In The Life: Boutique Owner

I always enjoy reading "day in the life" posts so I thought I'd share a little peek into what an average day is like as a retail store owner. Some days are more exciting than others but here's a little look into what a normal day that I'm in the store is like.

7:00am

Alarm goes off. I will say that the benefit to working retail hours is that I don't always have to be at the office right at 8 or 9. I read a few emails in bed before eventually going downstairs to make a cup of coffee. Then, it's the normal getting ready routine of makeup and hair.

8:15am

I'm trying to get better about having a good breakfast before I'm out the door, so I make a couple of scrambled eggs before heading back upstairs to finishing getting dressed and grabbing Sophie to head out the door for the day.

8:45am

Hop in the car and head to ZIA! One thing I love about my store space is how close it is to my house. I loved my last job but I drove 45 minutes to an hour each way, so the 10 minute commute to the store is a great change.

9:00am

I don't always have meetings with reps at the store but I have gotten lucky that a few travel to Wilmington or are local! A lot of ordering I do in Atlanta or New York, but it is always great when I can see reps in store. One set up reps makes it super easy for me - they have an RV that they pull up outside the store, and I hop in to see upcoming seasons in some of my favorite lines. By 9:45am, I'm all done and head into the store to start the day.

10:00am

Doors open. By this time, we have the register ready, music on, and lights bright. A lot of times, the first hour of the store day is the slowest, so if that's the case, I stay in my office and catch up on emails as well as create Instagram content for the day.

These next hours look different each day depending on a variety of things. If I'm the only one in, I'm mostly on the floor, working with customers, etc. If I have someone else working that day, then I try to stay put in my office, catching up on invoices, getting things into inventory, and emails. But ask the girls - I have a hard time staying in my office sometimes.

12:00pm - 2:30pm

All the exciting times. I try to take my lunch but if not, I will often grab something from Epic Food Company, which is a few doors down in my shopping center. Then, a little after lunch, we can normally expect any packages to arrive. This is always fun as though I know a timeline of when things are coming in, it's often a surprise as to the exact day. We normally work on getting things unboxed, steamed, in inventory, and then out on the floor.

2:30pm - 6:00pm

It's more of the same! There are absolutely no consistencies in retail. Some days, our afternoons are our busiest while this week, it's been our mornings. If I'm not working with our clients, then I am back in the office organizing or on the computer.

6:00pm

Time to say goodbye to the little store. Sophie is always ready to go by this time and is normally sitting by the door waiting on me. We will do a few store close-down things: closing out the shift, vacuuming, dusting. I normally will sit down to my computer one last time to make sure I'm set for the next day and then type out any notes if I'm not going to be in.

6:30pm

Heading home! Or to dinner. Stephen and I are working on cooking more, but we do love eating out. We have several really great Mexican restaurants in the vicinity of the store and our house, so sometimes we'll meet there for dinner and drinks. Now that the days are longer, we'll sometimes meet at the beach to walk the loop with Sophie.

8:30pm

Normally around this time, I'll hop back on the computer for a few minutes, whether it's to work on the next day's blog post or go through a few things for the store and prepare for the next day.

10:00pm

Time for bed! I try to be in bed by 10, though it's rare that I fall asleep immediately! I have started taking some melatonin gummies (check out this post) which have helped in getting me relaxed! I browse through Insta (both the ZIA and my regular account) and catch up on any messages I missed before finally putting my phone down for the night.

That's about it! Some days are very exciting - like when we're at market or having a big event at the store - but this is what an average day looks like! Want to know more? Just leave any questions in the comments!

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